Her Father's Keeper
by rocketstar
Summary: What's behind the insanity that is Will McAvoy? Other than a cheating ex girlfriend coming back into his life, various psychological issues and a really bad temper not to mention his professional life all over the place because one little response he made to a stupid sorority girl's question? His teenage daughter Isabella, who is without a doubt the only sane thing in his life.
1. Chapter 1

_"It's not the greatest country in the world, professor, that's my answer."_

Isabella McAvoy sat on the couch with her laptop in front of her and watched the video of her dad losing it at co-ed at a college panel discussion at northwestern, the incident itself had only happened a several of hours ago but thanks to modern technology more specifically camera phones the whole thing was captured on video and was streaming online.

"_You're saying—"_

_"Yes."_

Clearly people were going to be shocked when a public figure like Will McAvoy especially one who the moderator had claimed was the 'Jay Leno' of news anchors as he never bothered anyone outright said that America was not the greatest country in the world. In her father's defence to the college sophomore's question he had answered what made American the greatest country in the world by saying the New York Jets – which was true but the moderator wouldn't back down. Eventually her father lost his temper and the rest was history or rather forever as it was on the internet and people did say the internet was forever._  
"Let's talk about—" _

Isabella groaned as she knew what was coming next and watching someone moron goad her father on was not going to pretty for the fifth time in a row. Her mother had given numbers of some institutes in case she decided that it was finally time for her father to be sent to the crazy house where he belonged – Isabella's mothers words not her own. Although she knew her dad was slightly crazy not to mention deranged but he was her dad and he had always been a bit odd, however her mother's over was tempting especially when she first saw the video. It was that bad, well the beginning of it at least.

_"–Fine. Sharon, the NEA is a loser. Yeah, it accounts for a penny out of our paychecks, but he gets to hit you with it anytime he wants. It doesn't cost money, it costs votes. It costs airtime and column inches. You know why people don't like liberals? Because they lose. If liberals are so fuckin' smart, how come they lose so GODDAM ALWAYS!"_

Her father had an issue with profanity, a serious one that Isabella by some miracle didn't inherit given that both her parents like to swear a lot especially about each other but her dad really liked to especially when he was riled up about something. Although it wasn't usually a liberals and conservatives however her dad had just went psycho on a liberal and was about to turn onto the conservative sitting to the left of him.

_"And with a straight face, you're going to tell students that America's so star spangled awesome that we're the only ones in the world who have freedom? Canada has freedom, Japan has freedom, the UK, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Australia, Belgium has freedom. Two hundred seven sovereign states in the world, like 180 of them have freedom!" _

Isabella bit her lip as her father was really getting into his little rant, so much so that he turned his attention on to the person who had started this all. The college sophomore and this was going to be ugly as her dad could be a real jerk most of the time, well pretty much all the time to anyone who wasn't her.

_"And you—sorority girl—yeah—just in case you accidentally wander into a voting booth one day, there are some things you should know, and one of them is that there is absolutely no evidence to support the statement that we're the greatest country in the world. We're seventh in literacy, twenty-seventh in math, twenty-second in science, forty-ninth in life expectancy, 178th in infant mortality, third in median household income, number four in labor force, and number four in exports. We lead the world in only three categories: number of incarcerated citizens per capita, number of adults who believe angels are real, and defense spending, where we spend more than the next twenty-six countries combined, twenty-five of whom are allies. None of this is the fault of a 20-year-old college student, but you, nonetheless, are without a doubt, a member of the WORST-period-GENERATION-period-EVER-period, so when you ask what makes us the greatest country in the world, I don't know what the fuck you're talking about?! Yosemite?!"_

Isabella had to admit that she had laughed at that part, she had watched this video five times now and everytime she couldn't help but laugh as he told college girl who was only two years older than herself that she was part of the worst generation period ever before bringing up Yosemite national park. It was funny because her dad took her there once when she was eleven back when her mom had full custody and the two of them lived in LA and her dad was in New York and it was three years before she moved back. But they had gone up to Yosemite national park for a day trip but they were only there for about ten minutes before her dad said 'Fuck it, I'm bored of this shit already let's go!' It was a typical Will McAvoy thing to do. But then the angry rant about why America wasn't the greatest country ended and something else appeared from the ashes of an middle man - who seemingly lost his mind and in the process of ruining his career's - mouth.

_"We sure used to be. We stood up for what was right! We fought for moral reasons, we passed and struck down laws for moral reasons. We waged wars on poverty, not poor people. We sacrificed, we cared about our neighbours, we put our money where our mouths were, and we never beat our chest. We built great big things, made ungodly technological advances, explored the universe, cured diseases, and cultivated the world's greatest artists and the world's greatest economy. We reached for the stars, and we acted like men. We aspired to intelligence; we didn't belittle it; it didn't make us feel inferior. We didn't identify ourselves by who we voted for in the last election, and we didn't scare so easy. And we were able to be all these things and do all these things because we were informed. By great men, men who were revered. The first step in solving any problem is recognizing there is one—America is not the greatest country in the world anymore."_

Pressing pause at the end of the video Isabella sighed as she picked up her Chinese carton and continued to eat her dinner, if she was right her father was going to be walking through the door in a few moments which was a good thing as after what happened today he needed to be at home with someone who could supervise him and someone who he'd actually listen to. And right on schedule the door opened and in walked the man himself; Mr. William Duncan McAvoy.

"Hey dad!" Isabella said giving her dad a small smile.

"Izzy, what are you doing here? Your not supposed to be here for another three days kiddo." Will said in a surprisingly mellow mood instead of the angry mood that Isabella was expecting.

"Your agent called me and mom thought you would need me so she sent me over a few days earlier so no worries, she isn't going to call you and scream down the phone threatening to get the lawyers involved because of a custody dispute." Isabella replied said because the only thing that could make her dad's day worse then it already was, would be a phone call from his ex wife and Isabella's mother.

"Oh." Will wearily replied as he put down his bag before making his way over to the couch and sitting himself down next to his daughter and taking the carton of food out of her hands. "So you heard about Northwestern?"

"Yeah I did, it was interesting…" Isabella replied.

"I'm blaming my vertigo medication for it because I had no idea what the hell I was doing, the words just came out of my mouth and then the discussion was over and it was only after it was done I realized I had no idea what had just gone on. And everybody is going crazy… How bad is it Izzy?" Will asked with a heavy sigh.

"Pretty bad, depending on how you look at it but I liked it. I thought you were really good."

"Really? Your not just saying that because you're my kid and you have to say things like that?" Will questioned.

Isabella shook her head. "No. I thought you were being really honest and you know we need that, no politician would go out and be that brutally honest and if you were one, you probably wouldn't get any votes but people would respect you. I admit that I t was harsh at times dad especially when you were yelling at the co-ed but you made some very valid points especially about the Jets..."

Will just sighed again before his eyes drifted to Isabella's computer screen. "Forty fucking thousand hits already! Are you kidding me? Seriously in the space of a few hours it gets put on the Internet and gets over forty thousand views?" He yelled.

And there it was, the boiling rage. Isabella knew her dad very well and she knew not long after he walked into the condo that he was being way to calm about this entire thing – most likely for her benefit

"Dad seriously, it's no big deal. People are going to be interested in it for a while before it blows over, kind of like when Obama was caught off record calling Kanye West a jackass. It was shocking but it disappeared when the next big scandal." Isabella said.

"Oh my god, my seventeen year old daughter has just compared me to Kanye West…" Will said to himself absentmindedly before turning back to Isabella. "By the way who the hell is Kanye West?" Forget it I don't want to know, it's been a shitty day and I just want to have a drink with my daughter. But seriously? Forty thousand hits on youtube already? Fuck me..."


	2. Chapter 2

Early the next morning Isabella walked into her father's room carrying a tray containing, the morning paper, a steaming hot cup of coffee and a half eaten breakfast of toast, bacon and eggs. The reasons that Isabella was giving her dad a half eaten breakfast was there had only been enough ingredients to make one person breakfast as her father had clearly not done any food shopping in a while and Isabella made a note to get the groceries delivered to the condo later. "Dad, wake up!" Isabella said kicking the food of her dad's bed in order to get his attention.

"Go away Izzy…" Will grumbled turning over onto his side.

"I've have hot food and drink on this tray and don't think I won't drop it all over your head dad because you know I will just like that time when you embarrassed me in front of Garrett Wilding." Isabella replied in a sing song tone of voice and moments later her father groggily sat up in bed and took the tray from Isabella with a sour look on his face. "Don't frown dad, it makes you look bitter not to mention it adds more lines to that already creased forehead of yours."

"How many?" Will questioned referring to how many views had the video of his rant gathered now as last night it was at forty thousand.

"Three hundred and seventy one thousand, last time I checked but it's no big deal dad. I told you last night that it will blow over when something else happens like one of those grown up former child stars gets arrested yet again by this time next week no one will remember it. Now takes your meds." Isabella instructed and her father gave her a wearily look before complying with her instructions. "You have a meeting with Uncle Charlie and the big network bosses later on today…"

"Great… Wait, how do you know that?"

Isabella held up her phone. "I have your calendar synched to my phone, I'm pretty much know where you are or where you're going to be pretty much every hour of the day. I find it necessary to keep tabs on you."

"Shouldn't that be the other way round? I am the parent here not you…" Will said.

"Perhaps. If you were like any other normal parent but your not dad, do you want me to come with you? I don't mind skipping school if you need me dad?" Isabella questioned.

Will shook his head. "Isabella I'm not a baby and I most certainly don't need my eighteen year old daughter coming to supervise me whilst I'm at work, I'll be fine and besides you can't afford to be missing out on any days of school right now, it's your senior year."

"One day won't kill me, it's not like I have much time left anyway."

"Forget it kiddo it's not happening, have you heard anything back from Stanford yet?" Will said moving things along to the college subject in particular Isabella's first choice Stanford, which she had been dreaming of attending for years now and it was finally in sight. Her application had been sent off and now it was just waiting to hear back.

"Not yet, but most letters aren't getting sent out for another week or so we'll find out soon, Sam said that most colleges send out their acceptances letters the first week of April so there's nothing to be worried about, this is normal–"

"–And how is your brother doing these days? When was the last time you spoke to him?" Will asked.

Isabella smiled sheepishly; she was the youngest of her father's two children that were produced during her father's short lived marriage to her mother. She had an older brother Samuel who was three years older and currently studying at Yale. Sam as he preferred to be called liked to keep a safe distance from Will because things between them had been ever so rocky and distant and quite antagonistic relationship ever since their parents got divorced, The two of them got a long during short periods of time but anything longer than a week never ended well so the two of them kept in touch through Isabella. "Good, we spoke this morning and he's fine although he had some choice words about the video…"

"Of course he did…" Will replied with a small roll of his eyes, his son wasn't one for keeping his opinion sand feelings about him quiet, in fact he was very vocal about them. It was getting him to shut up for a minute that was the problem. "What did he have to say about it? I take it the prodigal son wasn't best pleased..."

"That you were crazy."

"Your brother's been calling me that for the last ten years, that's nothing new to me… what else?"

"Wanted to know why I hadn't booked you into Bellevue, told him that even they wouldn't take you. It made Sam laugh and then he begrudgingly admitted that you gave America a good dose of reality and he was proud of you for finally growing some balls despite the fact that you managed to make yourself out to be a complete ass at the same time." Isabella said.

"There it is…" Will said with an amused shake of his head. "Your brother hates me."

"No he doesn't dad." Isabella replied.

"Yes he does."

"That's not true dad."

"Are you seriously trying to tell me that your brother doesn't hate me Izzy?" Will questioned chewing on a mouthful on toast. "Trust me when I say my own son hates me Isabella.

"He doesn't hate you dad, he just doesn't like you that much. There's a difference and this is Sam we're talking about he doesn't like anyone much, never has and probably never will." Isabella stated.

"He likes you." Will pointed out.

Isabella had to give her dad that one as he was right about that, she was the only person in their family who her brother would willingly make time for without complaining in the slightest or try his best to avoid them. "I'm an exception and may I remind you that he's not too fond of mom either."

"He likes your mother better then me and don't even try and tell me that I'm not right Izzy because we both know I'm right!" Will retorted.

"Sure you are." Isabella sarcastically replied.

"Don't you have somewhere to be smartypants? Like school? That place where I pay lots of money for you to learn things and get a diploma…" Will questioned and it caused Isabella to quietly chuckle.

"Yeah, I should probably get going. But I'll remind Greg to call up when your town car arrived and don't worry everything will be fine just take deep breaths before you say anything and try not to lose your temper again but if you can't help yourself just make sure no one is filming it!" Isabella joked.

"Haha very funny, goodbye Isabella." Will said with a sarcastic laughed.

"Bye dad."


	3. Chapter 3

Isabella McAvoy was ine of those people who were generally right about everything but for once she was wrong when it came to this thing with her father. It didn't get any better, it actually got worse to the point where it was starting to affect his work so his bosses ordered him to take a two week holiday to get himself in check. So off Will went to St. Lucia with a 'companion' and during that time she had gone back to staying with her mom until today, her dad was back at work and according to her caller id he was currently calling her, which wasn't unusual but it was usually Isabella who called her dad. "Hey dad, how was St. Lucia? I've got some really exciting news for you–"

"–Everything's gone to fucking shit Izzy!" Will yelled down the phone and Isabella actually had to move the phone away from her ear so she wouldn't be deafened by her father's wails. She had sent him off to St. Lucia to calm down but apparently he was more angrier than ever, clearly the vacation had not worked.

"Oh right, what happened dad?" Isabella questioned as she stopped in the middle of the sidewalk in order to see what was going on with her dad now.

"Elliot's going to 10 o'clock and he's taking my EP with him. Elliot is taking Don with him and Don is taking all of my damn staff with him, everyone Izzy! I gave Elliot everything and he repays me by doing something like this? And Don that sneaky rat bastard is leaving because I yelled at him in front of the staff and now he's saying that everyone is leaving because no of my staff like me!"

"Wow… Okay that's bad, but it can be fixed right? We can hire new people and find you a new executive producer." Isabella said choosing to ignore the latter part of her dad's statement because it was kind of true, her dad didn't have the best people skills with the people he worked with and his ex wife but with everyone else he was a pretty much a nice guy. But Isabella thought it was best to avoid talking about that entirely until her dad calmed down but then he surprised by laughing and it actually made her worry that he was finally losing his damn mind. Although she wouldn't blame him as he had just come back to work to find out that most of his staff was leaving him, if it were her she'd be pissed too. Well hypothetically as she wasn't one to lose her temper that often.

"I wouldn't worry about it Iz, Charlie's already gone and hired me a new EP and you'll never fucking believe who it is! Go ahead and try, you'll never guess…" Will began. "Mac. He hired Mac."

"–Wait? Mac? Uncle Charlie hired Mac as in MacKenzie McHale?" Isabella slowly said referring to her father's ex girlfriend who used to work with him a few years back as his executive producer and cheated on him. She was a rather sore subject for her father.

"Yeah! And here I thought that I had contractual approval over my EP's but apparently not, my contract does not allow me to pick my EP and apparently the contract is being signed and if I don't do something about it now I'll be stuck with her for three damn years!" Will continued to yell.

"Dad…"

"Did you know about this?" Will demanded.

"No Uncle Charlie didn't mention it to me once, dad if I had know I would have called you the second I found out!" Isabella replied in an irritated manner, she knew her dad was upset and he had every right to be upset but he did not have to take it out on her.

"I'm sorry Iz, it's everything is so fucked up at the moment." Will said after a couple of minutes pause.

"Forget it, what are you going to do now?"

"I'm on my way to my agents, I'm going to try and find someway to fix. There has got to be some way that I can fix this without waiting eighteen months for my contract to be up for renegotiation."

"I'm really sorry about all of this dad, do you need me to do anything? Or come down to the station because I will dad just say the word and I will." Isabella said as she went into her bag and pulled out the packet in her satchel that she had been carrying with her all day in order to show her dad. It had come a day after he had left for St. Lucia and she hadn't told anyone about it as she wanted him to be the first person she told and she wanted to do it in person.

"No I'm good but thanks for the offer Izzy, anyway what's this news you wanted to tell me…" Will said changing the subject.

"It can wait for now, your having a hard day so I'll drop by the station tomorrow after school and we can talk about it. I'll also pick up your suit from the dry cleaners and grab us something to snack on and I'll tell you everything that I've been up to the last couple of weeks." Isabella said.

"Sounds nice."

"I'll see you tomorrow dad." Isabella replied hanging up the phone, her dad had been in a bad place with this whole Northwestern incident, then this thing with all his staff leaving and Uncle Charlie hiring his ex girlfriend was just making things worse and Isabella was really worried about him, as in seriously worried about his mental well being as all of this may be too much for the man to handle and as she looked at the packet in her hands, she kind of realized what she had to do. She didn't want to do it but it was the only thing she could think of at the moment and she had to swallow a huge lump in her throat as she hit two on her speed dial.

"Hello Isobel?"

Hearing the sound of her mother's voice made it all the more harder for Isobel but she told herself she had to do this, it would probably end up being the biggest regret of her life but her dad needed her more. "Hey mom, I've got to tell you something and you might want to sit down…""


	4. Chapter 4

The next day Isabella came back from school and found her brother sitting in their mom's living room casually reading a book looking as if he belong there instead of being in New Haven. Sam only came home from school every two or three months for a weekend if it wasn't the holidays so Isabella was quite surprised to see him here as it was a Wednesday and her brother no doubt had classes today. "Sam, what are you doing here?"

"Mom called me late last night and told me what happened, I drove down after my classes ended." Sam said and Isabella wearily bit her lip, she hadn't anticipated her mother calling her brother for reinforcement after their phone call yesterday.

"You didn't have to come all the way down Sam, it's fine and I'm about to pop out to the studio to go see dad, I just came to drop off some of my school things that's." Isabella replied as she started unloading her school textbooks onto the coffee table.

"C'mon Iz? I'm not the most frequent or present person in this family but there was no way I wasn't coming home when mom told me about your phone call. I know you told mom that you didn't want to talk about it but I know how hard you worked to try and get in there and you've wanted to attend Stanford since you were a kid. I'm sorry you didn't get into Stanford Izzy–" Sam began and Isabella just bit her lip, the problem with Sam was that she had this problem of being unable to keep things from him and he had this innate ability to see when she was.

"About that Sam, there's something you should know…" Isabella said trying to figure out how to go about telling her brother the truth as he got his temper from their father.

"Know what?" Sam wearily asked.

"You better come with me." Isabella reluctantly said as she walked into her bedroom and opened her bottom desk draw, stuck her hand in and felt up the bottom of the draw above it before pulling a large white envelope and handing it over to her brother. "This came for me two weeks ago, it's from Stanford…"

Sam slowly opened the envelope and pulled out a large colourful pack and looked at the letter that was with it. "This says that you did get into Stanford Izzy, what the hell is going on? Why would you call mom and lie about not getting accepted to your dream school."

"Because I'm not going," Isabella announced.

"What do you mean your not going? You've worked so hard towards this, dreamt of going to Stanford years and now all of a sudden you don't want to go?" Sam demanded.

"It's not that I don't want to go because I would love to go but I can't not anymore."

"Why not?"

Isabella took a baited breath, her brother really was not going to like it what she was about to say. "Because of dad."

"Dad? Are you seriously going to stand here and tell me that you're going to turn down your dream school because of him?"

"It's too late, I've already called them and turned down their offer and accepted my the offer I got from Columbia. It's complicated Sam, you've just got to trust me on this. I'm doing the right thing by staying here." Isabella said swallowing yet another huge lump in her throat, it was still taking time for her to deal with the decision she had made yesterday.

"Doing the right thing? You've got to be fucking kidding me Isabella! Who the hell are you doing the right thing for? Certainly not you because your giving up your dreams and everything you've worked for! I really don't get it Izzy, why would you do this and for dad of all people? If this is about that stupid outburst of his then don't worry about it, you know dad does stupid shit all the time there's no reason to give up going to Stanford for that! Besides dad wants you to go to Stanford." Sam yelled.

"Dad's a mess Sammy." Isabella quietly said.

"When is he not?"

Isabella shook his head. "You don't get it Sam, yesterday dad went back to work and he found out that Don, his executive producer is moving to the 10 o'clock slot with Elliot and he's taking practically all of dad's staff. And you'll never guess who Uncle Charlie hired to be he's new EP."

"Who?" Sam asked clearly not interested.

"Mac."

Sam looked shocked and it was clear that he wasn't expecting to hear that name of all people's names and now he had become interested in the matter. "Mac? As in MacKenzie Hale? Shit… How's dad?"

"How do you think? He's a bloody mess despite trying to pretend like he's not, which is why I have to stay because he needs me Sammy. I'm worried that if I go he'll fall apart and I just couldn't in right conscious go to Stanford and be worried about him. He'd be all alone and I hate the thought of that as you leaving was hard on him. He loves you so much Sammy but he acts the way he does with you because it's the way you like things and all he wants is for you to be comfortable with him. Dad asks about you all the time, wanting to know how you are and what your up to and how's school. I know dad isn't normal but he tries really hard and as much as you would hate to admit it he's a good dad. You know he could have turned out like his own dad."

"Izzy…" Sam slowly said.

"Dad is a functioning wreck and he can't be left alone, we all know that Sam. I don't want to go away to college and be worrying about him day and night, if I stay in New York I can still go to school and be able to keep an eye on him. I know Columbia isn't Stanford but I'll make it work." Isabella said and once she had finished neither of them had said anything for a few moments.

"That shit head doesn't deserve you as a kid, you certainly wouldn't see me doing something like this for him… you sure about this Isabella." Sam questioned.

"I'm certain."

"I don't like this at all Izzy." Sam wearily replied.

"You don't have to, you've just got to go along with it. I told mom that I didn't get in to Stanford because she wouldn't have let me do this and she would have certainly wouldn't have understood. I figured it would be best if I told both mom and dad that I didn't get it, if I'm going to lie to one then I might as well lie to them both." Isabella reasoned.

"I'm assuming you haven't told dad." Sam noted and Isabella just shook her head.

"No not yet, but I'm going to tell him now. I said I'd come over to the station and we could have lunch and I'd bring over his dry cleaning. He was having a really bad day yesterday so I figured I'd him some time before dropping the bombshell on him,"

"I'll come with you."

"You don't have to Sam, it's fine." Isabella said taken a back by her brother's offer to come with her as he wasn't one for volunteering to spend time with their father unless it was necessary

"No I want to."

And just over an hour later arrived at Atlantic Cable news office and entered the newsroom on news night and immediately the two of them made a beeline towards their father's office as to avoid anyone they didn't want to talk to and when they reached Will's office Isabella knocked on the door and moments later Will bellowed for them to come in. "Hey Izzy, you came…" Will began as he rose from his office chair until he saw his son there too. "And Sam."

"Hey dad." Isabella replied as she went to go hang up her father's dry cleaning on his bathroom door.

"Hey son." Will said.

"Dad."

"So what brings you to New York on a Wednesday of all days? Not that I'm not happy to see you Sammy because I am it's just not typically like you but it's fine. I'm glad you're here and now I'm rambling in front of my grown children." Will replied.

"Nice to see you too dad, I saw clips of the show last night. You did a great job." Sam said much to the shock of both Isabella and Will as that was probably the nicest thing Sam had said to him in about five years and without being prompting.

"Thanks."

"Um dad, there's something that I want you to talk about or rather tell you about and it's something really big and I really think you should sit down for this because it's going to be a bit of a shock to you." Isabella said as Sam went about pouring their dad a drink.

"I'm confused here, you want to tell me something and apparently it's very bad and you think I need to sit down for it and your brother is making me a drink so I can hear this news. Has someone died? Is it your mother? Just tell me now and get on with it…" Will questioned

"Dad take the damn drink and sit down." Sam stated and Will eyes his two children suspiciously before taking the offered drink and sitting down in his chair.

"Okay, what's going on? I have both my children in here giving me a drink and telling me to sit down because they have something to tell me and judging by the looks on your faces it's not exactly good–"

"–I didn't get into Stanford." Isabella blurted out and once she did she watched as he dad drained his entire drink.

"Sweetie…" Will began and his features immediately began to soften which made it even harder for Isabella to lie about this to him but she kept telling herself she was doing this for a good reason.

"I'm okay dad." Isabella stated. "I've had some time to let the news sink it."

"When did you find out about this? Will questioned as he got up from his seat.

"Day after you went to St. Lucia."

"Why didn't you call me and tell me?"

"You said you didn't want to be bothered unless it was life and death and me being rejected by Stanford wasn't life or death. I figured it could wait until you got back as it was no big deal." Isabella said with a small shrug of my shoulders.

"Anything to do with you or your brother is life and death, if you had told me I would have come home straight away Izzy." Will began before turning to Sam. "I assume this is why you came home?"

Sam nodded "Yeah."

"Does mom know?"

"I told her yesterday, she called Sam and he came up this morning." Isabella said with the biggest smile, which she could muster which wasn't exactly much.

"I honestly can't believe this, I was so sure that you'd get in Izzy." Will said and he placed a reassuring hand on Isabella's shoulders. "Who are they not to want you? The people in admission must be idiots if they passed up on you but don't worry I'll fix this, I don't know how but I will. You've had your heart set on Stanford since you were twelve Izzy and I don't care what I have to do or who much I have to pay to get you in but I will!"

"Dad, seriously it's fine. I know I had my heart set on Stanford dad but whose to say that I can't go later? There's nothing stopping me from transferring or going there to do my masters degree? I love you for caring dad but I got into plenty of other good schools like Duke, Berkeley, NYU, Carnegie Mellon and Columbia." Isabella replied with a watery smile.

"Any idea, where you want to go now?" Will asked

"I've decided to go to Columbia, I've accepted their offer a few days ago and they are just waiting for you to send them a cheque and then it's just a matter of me graduating. I brought the acceptance letter with me, figured you'd want to frame it in here like you did with Sammy's one." Isabella said pointing to the frame on the wall that held Sam's acceptance letter to Yale and moments later she was surprised when her father pulled her into a hug. It was weird as her dad wasn't much of a hugger and it even caused Sam to smile at the sight, until their father pulled the two of them out of his office and into the newsroom.

"Can I have everyone's attention for a moment?" Will called out and seconds later all eyes were on him.

"Dad, you really don't want to do this…" Isabella began but her dad chose to ignore her as he placed an arm around both her and Sam.

"I don't know most of your names and right now I couldn't really care less as I want you to meet two people. You've probably seen them occasionally but had no idea who they are, well now I'll tell you. These are my children, my son Samuel who is a junior at Yale and plays on their lacrosse team and my daughter Isabella who had just been offered a place at Columbia this fall and I just wanted to you all to know that I couldn't be any more prouder of my kids!"


	5. Chapter 5

Isabella stood in the newsroom and just watched the people coming and going, working and talking with each other whilst her dad was sitting his office on the phone. He must have realized that someone was watching him as Will looked up from his desk and saw her starting that he gave Isabella a reassuring smile. It was the one he always used when he was trying to comfort her when she was upset, he had used it a lot when he divorced her mom. Isabella knew that she'd be seeing that smile a lot along with several expensive gifts in her dad's attempt to comfort her in the only way an awkward father who had no idea how to deal with a teenaged daughter knew how to. Isabella found it to be very sweet and occasionally her dad got it right.

"You know Iz, you look a bit weird just standing in the middle of the room watching people." Sam said as he walked up to his sister with a cup of coffee in his hand.

"I was just observing the coming and goings of the newsroom." Isabella retorted.

"And speaking of the newsroom, where is their fearless leader?" Sam questioned.

"Dad just finished getting off the phone with mom."

"He called mom? Willingly? Fucking hell…" Sam slowly said and Isabella couldn't help but nod in agreement as their dad hated speaking to their mom and always went out of his way to avoid speaking to her unless he had to. So him calling her willingly without being forced or blackmailed into was very out of character.

"I know. Usually the time that the two of them talk without raising their voices is when one of us have been seriously hurt or sick but I didn't even hear a trace of raised voices. I didn't have to be in on the conversation to know that it was probably about me, I reckon is dad is worried about me and he's called mom to discuss it and he's found out that she's is also worried about me given that she called you. But they have it the wrong way round, I'm fine but I'm worried about dad who's worried about me." Isabella noted.

"Well they are your parents, the two of them wouldn't be doing their jobs correctly if they weren't worried about you. Mom and dad probably both think that your bottling the whole they think you haven't got into Stanford situation because you want to play it down for their sakes. They think you'll eventually crack and it'll hit you so you better be prepared for them watching your every move for the next two weeks Izzy." Sam replied.

"I know." Isabella replied as she swallowed a small lump in her throat. "I know I'm doing the right thing here but I can't lie and say that it doesn't bother me. I'd love to go to Stanford but dad's health and well being not to mention him in general matter to me more than my dream school."

"I know that Columbia was no Stanford but it's a very good school not to mention an ivy league one at that, not that dad actually cares about that stuff. But like you said earlier just because you're not going to Stanford right now doesn't mean you can't transfer when you think dad's finally got his act together to be left on his own." Sam said reassuring Isabella by placing an arm around his sisters shoulders. "But you do realize how pissed off and mad dad is going to be when he finds out you lied to him about Stanford."

"Sam…"

"Don't even start Izzy, you know mom and dad will both find out eventually it's just a matter of when and who finds out first. My money is mom finding out and then dad and boy will that not be pretty…"

"I'll worry about that when that day comes, right now I just want dad to be happy." Isabella replied glancing over at their dad, smiling when she saw him interact with staff in a rather happy manner, occasionally pointing over to them and beaming with pride. Will McAvoy was many things and some of them weren't good things but he was a good dad. He tried his hardest and was always there for his kids, Isabella could not remember a school play or a soccer game that her dad had never been to. He was always at every birthday party and recital even if that meant being in the same room as his ex wife. He had done so much to make sure that his children didn't have the unhappy childhood that he had that the only thing Isabella wanted was for her dad to be happy and not the pretend happy he often put on for her sake but actually happy.

"I've decided that I'm going to come down a bit more from New Haven, you've got me thinking Iz. I'm not around enough and maybe if I was then you might have not decided to sacrifice your dream school for dad's wellbeing…" Sam begun.

"Sammy…"

"I'm his kid too Isabella. I should be spending more time with him, not to mention you and mom. You say dad is unhappy and he needs us so for once I want to help, I don't want you to do this by yourself or be burdened with looking out for dad all the time so I'm going to come back home more. Coming back every couple of months for a weekend and a phone call every Sunday isn't good enough. Dad may not be my favourite person but you are and I don't want you to do this by yourself Izzy, you're my baby sister and I'll be here for you whenever you need me." Sam continued, only stopping when a woman with short dark hair walked into the newsroom. At first she didn't seem them but then she did and her eyes widened slightly as she realized who they were and she came to a stop

"Sam, Izzy…" MacKenzie Hale, Will McAvoy's ex girlfriend and new producer slowly began.

"Hello MacKenzie, long time no cheat– I mean see…"


	6. Chapter 6

Isabella was about to scold her brother for what he had said until she realized she had been the one to say it and not Sam. Her, Isabella Ann McAvoy who out of her entire family was the quiet and reserved one who wasn't prone to losing her temper of getting overly emotional but yet she had just said to her father's ex girlfriend 'Hello MacKenzie, long time no cheat– I mean see…' it was very out of character for her but Isabella couldn't help herself, it had just come out of her mouth before Isabella could do anything. It was a rather horrible thing even for Isabella to say to someone she used to look up to and greatly admire. MacKenzie Hale was a smart, independent woman who knew what she wanted and wasn't afraid to stand up to anyone. She had been a great role model for Isabella to look up to and a good partner for Will. MacKenzie was the kind of woman that Isabella wanted to be like when she was older, that was until Mac had cheated on her father and broken his heart into a million little pieces. Isabella saw the damage that it had done, she saw her father try and cope through drinking despite being so depressed that he could barely function until she pleaded with him to get some help. Her dad was still on medication although he had stopped going to therapy a while ago.

"I'm sorry I shouldn't have said that." Isabella eventually said forcing herself to smile; despite how crazy and eccentric her parents were they had done their upmost best to raise Isabella to be a nice girl. But Isabella wasn't perfect, although she did tried.

"Hey Mac…" Sam said in an attempt to move things along from the very awkward place that the three of them were currently in.

"It's good to see you both." MacKenzie began in a cheerful manner. "So how are you both? It's been a while… Last time I heard you were heading off to Yale Sam, how's it going?"

"Great, I've just declared my major as political science…" Sam explained and Isabella zoned out as her brother explained to Mac all about Yale and how great he was finding it in New Haven. It was all very interesting but Isabella was yet again worrying about her father and his mental well being as whilst she knew that MacKenzie was the new executive producer for news night, she had realized how big the implications of that was until now. Isabella made a note to keep a closer eye on her dad and to stop by the news room more often as the last thing she needed or wanted was her father to fall into another drunken stupor after being somewhat functional for the last two years, "Izzy?"

"Sorry, I drifted off… What were you saying?" Isabella asked.

"Mac was asking you about graduating."

"Oh yeah, I graduate from school in six weeks and then I'm free for a couple of months until I start at Columbia." Isabella idly replied as she watched her dad looking over at her from the safety of his office. No doubt only wanting to spend the minimum amount of time with Mac as he could.

"Yes I heard your father's announcement about you being accepted into Columbia but I thought you wanted to attend Stanford?" MacKenzie asked and Isabella just glanced over to Sam, people were going to ask about the whole Stanford thing and the more she lied about why she wasn't going to Stanford the easier the lie would hopefully would get.

"I didn't get into Stanford." Isabella announced.

"Oh Izzy…"

"It's fine." Isabella quickly replied as she didn't want Mac's sympathy, she didn't want anyone's sympathy given the fact that she had gotten into Stanford although no one knew that except her and Sam. Deciding to move things along before MacKenzie decided to go snooping into the reasons behind her rejection from Stanford given that she was a journalist Isabella decided to move the focus onto Mac. "Congratulations on yesterday's show Mac, the coverage was impressive and ground breaking considering all the other news channels were just covering the search and rescue and not the oil leak."

"Thank you–" Mac began before she was interrupted by one of the few people who was responsible for the fowl mood that Will McAvoy had been in since early yesterday.

"Hey Mac, Jim wants to see you." Don Keefer, Will's former executive producer interrupted.

"Oh okay, I'll see you both later." Mac replied bidding both Isabella and Sam goodbye, Isabella would admit that MacKenzie Hale was a very nice woman and it was hard not to like her. But as nice as Mac was she had hurt her father and for that Isabella wasn't going to forgive her anytime soon.

"Oh look it's only man in the world whose an either bigger asshole than my father." Sam drily stated and Isabella couldn't help but laugh, whilst she was the nice and polite one out of her and her brother Sam was the opposite always saying what was on him mind no matter. A trait that he shared with their father and mother.

"Look Sam and Izzy, I don't know what you've heard but me leaving your dad to head up 10 o'clock with Elliott isn't just because of what happened at Northwestern. It because of several other reasons." Don attempted to explain but Isabella watched as her brother rolled his eyes, clearly he didn't believe what Don was saying.

"Look Don if you want to leave because you don't like our dad then just be honest about it and people will respect you more for it. I get the fact that my dad's a dick but here's the thing Don, Will McAvoy is my dick of a dad. But you've become an even more bigger dick because you snuck around his back and took all his staff with you. So I hope you have fun at 10 o'clock…" Sam goaded before grabbing Isabella's arm and dragging her away. As much as her brother didn't want to admit this but Samuel McAvoy was very much his father's son.

"You okay?" Isabella asked after a moment as her brother seemed the furthest from fine, he looked very angry and annoyed not to mention he looked moments away from hitting someone. Who knew that Sam would get worked up about his father's staff leaving him?

"No I need a drink." Sam replied before skulking off towards their father's office no doubt to help himself to some of their father's scotch and have a conversation with their dad about how much a dick Don Keefer was. Not following her brother to allow him and their dad to have some rare father and son bonding time, Isabella idly wondered around the news room until she ran into Charlie Skinner; CAN news division president and her father's boss.

"Hello Little One."

"Hi Uncle Charlie." Isabella replied with an actual smile on her face, Charlie Skinner was one of the few people who could deal with her father although when he couldn't deal him Charlie often drafted in Isabella's help. Which was quite often to the point that Isabella was on Charlie's speed dial and vice versa.

"I hear congratulations are in order." Charlie stated placing a hand on Isabella's shoulder and rubbing it in an affectionate manner. "Your dad must be so proud."

"Even though I'm going to Columbia instead of Stanford dad is so proud, I haven't seen him this happy in a while. You know he's going to frame my acceptance letter on his wall just like he did with Sam. If he's like this now, I can only imagine what he'll be like on graduation day… Sam reckons dad is going to start crying when I walk across the stage to get my diploma." Isabella quipped but Charlie didn't say anything instead he just looked at her. "Uncle Charlie?"

"What did you do?" Charlie asked and Isabella swallowed a large in her throat, there was no way Charlie knew what she had done. It was impossible as Sam wouldn't betray her trust and any evidence of her lies was safely hidden away where no one would even find it.

"What are you talking about Uncle Charlie?" Isabella asked, playing off the question.

"I know you Isabella, despite all this business with Mac coming back your dad is happy and that's because of you… You put your dad and his happiness and well being before yourself… Always have and always will. I don't believe for a second that you didn't get into Stanford, whilst everyone else may believe that I don't believe for a second that you Isabella Ann McAvoy the well spoken, extraordinary smart daughter of William McAvoy and most compassionate person I know didn't get into Stanford. They would be idiots to reject someone of your stature. Your father knows it, I know it and so do you." Charlie quietly stated and Isabella willed herself not to cry, Charlie may have just flowered her with compliments but he was as smart as a whip and he did the one thing that no one else had managed to do; figure out she was lying.

"Uncle Charlie I have no idea what you're talking about." Isabella hoarsely said but she didn't believe it and she knew Charlie didn't.

"He's lucky to have you."


End file.
